Diablo2 Accursed: a monster's story
by Sasha Marie
Summary: One shot. Gore Jade the witch is not an ordinary monster. she seeks help to regain her humanity. but all goes wrong once that end is reached and she realizses that justice is hard to come by and happiness remains elusive.


AN: Dear gods it's been too long since I've played Diablo 2 but by the powers do I love it. This is dedicated to what first introduced me to the wonderful world of pc gaming. _**FYI**_ This story is set shortly after the hero leaves the for the second area in Diablo 2. oh and Izelle is my character no one else's. Gore Jade the witch of course was one of the monsters I found in the game that inspired this story.

Accursed:

a monster's story

My name is Gore Jade the witch, and I am a monster. I vary my living locale every so often, from the canyon of the magi to the stony field, and I have finally found where the hero first emerged. This will be the first place to burn. The rogue encampment is only meters away but I must be smart. I cannot be detected. I must see Akara before I burn this place. If she can help me I might spare it's inhabitants my wrath. If not I'll kill her myself. Either will be very satisfying.

My wish is simple. I want to be human again. I was once very beautiful and sought after. Now I'm a hideous monster and hunted. They call me the witch because despite my transformation I can still tap into my magic and use my curses. Monsters from all around have sought me out to hex and curse the humans that plague them. The monsters and humans are not so different but humans wished me to hex others of their race. There may be a few petty differences between our kinds but if set aside? The angels and demons would have a force to be reckoned with. I want to be human again not to rejoin my pathetic race but so that I may become a dark goddess over those that have come to trust me so.

I love my monsters dearly for they fight life and limb to protect me from those horrid adventurers and nasty heroes. They are my children and I am their dark queen. The guard is switching, now is my chance. I hex them with the dim vision curse and creep past them in their momentary blindness. I stay along the wall until I reach Akara's tent. I've been lucky so far but I can't live on luck. I check the coast and slip inside. She's still awake and I grab her before she can shout.

"Shhhh. Hush woman." I should stop growling, it would really help. I try again to make my voice work in the human's tongue and am rewarded with a gasp as I succeed. "I mean you no harm priestess." She stares wide eyed at me. She can't believe I can talk. I let her digest this turn of events, either way she has stopped struggling. I am going release her mouth. "Promise not to call the guards?" She nods. I release her from my grasp completely. "I can't do this Akara. I need your help. I can't live like this another day." I'm rambling. I notice I'm rambling and I stop, running my clawed fingers through my mane. "I want to be human again. Please, help me."

I look into her soft blue eyes imploring her to help this amber eyed monster. After several heartbeats she speaks rather shakily. "I will help you. But first may I know your name?" I hope she doesn't _need_ my human name because I've long since forgotten it. "Call me Gore Jade." She nods politely. "Very well then Gore Jade, tell me how you became a monster in the first place." I flinch, I can't help it. "I was very young. I was a very promising student. My mother. My mother said I was too vain, too beautiful for my own good. And one day I woke up and-and I was this." I'm crying. I shouldn't be but I am. It is too painful. I know Mother did it. And I know why. Because we were both beautiful. But beauty fades with age and she wanted to be remembered for her beauty not replaced. But even worse I was so beautiful that even in her youth she could not compare. She hated to be surpassed by her children, especially so effortlessly.

I'm broken out of my thoughts by a gentle thumb on my cheek wiping away my tears. She looks at me with eyes full of compassion and love. I can almost feel my heart rip at thought of letting her burn tomorrow morning. You can't win them all. I'll carry this kind woman in my heart always. And I will teach the monsters never to quarrel amongst themselves. Humans are so flawed, their only glory is their adaptability and their courage.

"It will take a week for me to prepare. You may stay here if you like." I only hope the smile I give is not menacing. "As much as I would like to there are those who would raid the camp if I did not return to them. They are very protective of me. I'll come back in a week." I turn to leave but stop short of the tent flap, someone is there. I quickly step back as Kashya steps into the tent. She screams and knocks an arrow. I freeze, casting the dim vision curse before she looses the arrow. Akara quickly pulls me out of the way and behind her. The curse wears off and Kashya looks at Akara speechless. "Why are you protecting it Akara?" Akara pats my shoulder fondly. I'm hunching down behind her ears back, looking as frightened as possible, even quivering once in a while. Kashya only glares coldly at me.

"Because _it _was once human just like you and I Kashya. She took great risks in coming to see me tonight and I've already agreed to help her." Kashya's eyes narrow menacingly at me. "Whoever did it probably had good reason to." Akara shakes her head. "Kashya, do you remember the story of Izelle?" Kashya looks questioningly at Akara. "The girl who's mother told her she was far too vain and beautiful for her own good?" Akara nods. "She disappeared shortly after her fifth birthday. But that was twenty years ago." Akara nods. "Gore Jade here, told me _her_ mother said the same thing about her."

Kashya looks at me closely. "Are you Izelle?" I look down tears shining in my eyes. "I don't remember my name." Her cold look doesn't falter, she only nods, then she leaves. The guards that have gathered outside question Kashya and she feeds them some lie about a tame monster. One calls out through the tent. "Miss Akara, may we see the creature?" Akara looks at me compassionately and shrugs. "It's your decision Gore Jade. I won't complain if you blind them and leave."

I smile and walk slowly out of the tent. I keep my ears perked for the slightest sound to betray danger. Akara walks out with me, a reassuring hand on my shoulder. Many of the guards bring their weapons to the ready. Akara smiles brightly at the guards. "Take a good look my friends, in one week this monster will be given back what was taken away by a jealous parent." I look meekly at Akara. I don't think I'll be able to kill her. She has been as kind to me as my monsters.

A week has passed. The time of transformation is upon me. I stand on raised platform for all to see. Many adventurers have come to see me. Many of them were in the original search party sent to recover Izelle. Akara invokes God's name in prayer and is answered by lightning. The storm clouds gather and she gives a bag of herbs and items to Ikiria, a sorceress passing through, Neika, a necromancer, and Aaran, a paladin. Each mixes the ingredients given and chants either prayer or spell. It is Ikiria's job to keep me alive during this, Neika's job to remove the curse, and Aaran's here to make sure God is with me in my time of need and keep the curse from worsening should things go wrong. I smile down at my children for they are watching awestruck at the fore.

Akara smiles at me and whispers to me. "There will be pain." I smile and whisper back. "Bring it." Then electricity courses through my limbs. My skin feels like fire, my stomach feels like ice. I howl in pain and slump forward. Akara keeps praying over me, blessing me. The blessings hurt. I'm crying because of agony and each tear feels like snake venom is being squeezed out of my eyes.

A pulse. My body arches. My skin splits and peels away like rotten fruit bursting. My eyes go wide. Another pulse. My bones twist and reform themselves like a skeleton rising from the grave. I scream. Yet another pulse. My organs reshape and reorganize like a puzzle put together by a three year old with the pieces in the wrong places. Finally my scream turns human. And everyone cheers. Nobody seems to notice I am naked and cold.

My vision is blurry and my senses dulled but I remember the scent. An achingly familiar scent. I scan the crowd and find her, arrow knocked. Mother. Before I can react she lets fly. I leap to save Akara but the arrow strikes true. I scream in fury and heartache. Akara is gone. I snarl towards my children. "Bring the one that smells of lilac and holds a bow!" They rush to obey me. The adventurers try to stop my children and I scream at them. "Let them go! They will find the one that murdered her!" They are let pass. In moments the wizened old woman is brought before me and shoved roughly to the ground by a gargantuan beast. I growl at her rather impressively for a human.

I point a finger at her. "Are you not my tormentor, my mother, and the one that cursed me?"

She looks up at me challenging and defiant even in her old age. "Yes." I snarl. "Did you not just kill the priestess Akara?" She glares daggers and other miscellaneous sharp objects at me. "Yes." I look to the adventurers. "What shall we do with this murderess, a woman who cursed her own child out of jealousy?" Everyone gives a bloodthirsty shout. "Burn her!" I smile. I step down from the platform and hold her face in my hands. "If you'd been kind to me like Akara, I would have done _anything_ for you. Now you face God for your wickedness." She spits in my face. As always, treacherous as a snake. No offense to the snake people but they are quite treacherous as well.

It is night. I am camped outside the gates of the rogue encampment with my monsters where I belong. Many of the men offered their tents but I declined. Some were bold enough to offer me their tents with them in it, those I slapped and called pigs. One of those was Gheed. He persisted so I gave him a drink with a long lasting laxative and slipped away. I duly thanked Neika, Ikiria, and Aaran for their kind help and they invited me to sup with them. That offer I accepted. I didn't eat much as my monsters would have a fresh kill waiting for me.

My nostalgia is cut short by screams from the encampment. I grab my weapons and run. The encampment is burning and I see her vanish in the way point. I am knocked unconscious by a falling barrel. When I finally wake it is to a scene of pure horror. The encampment has been burnt to ash. There are no survivors but me. Neika dragged me from the flames and into the arms of my monsters. Then he went back in to rescue the others. He was never seen again.

I don't know whether they got away through the way point but I can only hope. I'm crying now. Everything is dull and gray. Blackened to charcoal. So as I sit here digging holes to bury the bones, I wonder how my heart regained it's humanity while my body did not. And as I sit here next to this pile of skulls I realize I will never be happy until the woman that did this is brought to justice. There is no Izelle, I am not human. I may look human but my human heart has shattered, it was far too weak. All that remains is Gore Jade the witch.

Fin


End file.
